Sixth generation networks (6G) are the next big paradigm in wireless communication. It is anticipated that 6G will be operational by 2030.

Technologies Proposed for 6G include:

- Complete integration of satellite and terrestrial connectivity.

- Integrated, Omnipresent Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning to control Data Flow and Optimize Energy Efficiency.

- 3-Layer Authentication Protocol (Physical [PLS], Connection, and Service).

- A Worldwide Mesh Network of Low Power & Low Latency Nodes via Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) and both DERs Powered & Battery Free Sensors (Piezoelectric, Ambient Back-Scatter Capable) combined with High Compute & High Capacity Nodes via Centralized Cloud Computing and a Worldwide Decentralized Network of AI Driven Data Centers.

- Visible Light Communications (VLC) and Terahertz (THz) Wave Technologies.

- Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) for Authentication, Tracking, Recording, Sharing, and Distribution. (Blockchain, Directed Acyclic Graph, and Hybridized/Proprietary DLTs). For applications requiring tamper-proof audit trails, data provenance, and decentralized trust, such as supply chain security and identity management in IoT ecosystems.

- Quantum Key Distribution, the new gold standard for "unbreakable encryption", able to detect anomalies like network eavesdropping, taking advantage of Quantum Superposition and Quantum Entanglement, and is imperative for short distance transmission of highly-sensitive data transmissions.

- Federated IDS, First, raw data located in the end-devices never leaves these devices, following an on-device policy. Instead, it is used to learn internal models and sharing local model parameters. Then, local parameters from agents are aggregated into a global model following some predefined rules (e.g. by averaging them as in FedAVG). Finally, the consolidated global parameters are sent back to each edge party and the process is iterated until convergence is achieved. Thus, knowledge acquired by collaborating devices is pooled to improve the overall metrics of each local model and obtain improved training scores.

6G Security KPIs stress emphasizing the intersection of AI and enabling technologies such as Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), Physical Layer Security (PLS), Distributed AI/ML, Visible Light Communication (VLC), Terahertz (THz), and Quantum Computing.

Below is a table of some of these technologies and their KPIs, their operational constraints, their proposed integration point, and it's current maturity state according to industry standards.